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Hong Kong Culinary Tour

Free candy at immigration? Shrimp wontons in the business-class lounge? A trip to Hong Kong is framed by sustenance.

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Rating: 5 out of 5 by EveryTrail members

Difficulty: Easy

Duration: Multiple days

Overview :
The relative compactness of the city, the tight embrace of its subtropical climate, the excellent subways and cheap taxis—everything... more » conspires to move you about until you find the perfect little air-conditioned hole-in-the-wall where, at three in the morning, a small family will be slicing up mangoes. Food is personal here, bad food an insult, good food a blessing, and the best way to see Hong Kongers at their most communal and animated is to follow them directly to the table. less «

Tips:
Summers are awfully hot and sticky—but from fall until January, the skies are blue, the humidity low, and the temperature lovely ... more »(averaging 65–70 degrees F). The biggest festival of the year, Chinese New Year, falls in January or February—which, unfortunately for celebrants, is chilly and damp. less «

Points of Interest

This controversial restaurant serving molecular cuisine originated as one of Hong Kong’s storied private kitchens and then morphed into what it is today: a space-age terraced room looking out on the back of an unspectacular building. A little dish of ebi in red truffle sauce supplies deep and briny flavors, its fibrous texture turned rich and... More creamy.

Address:
60 Johnston Rd.
Hong Kong
China

Phone:
852-2850-8371Less

2. Cépage, Hong Kong

From the lightly provocative art by Mao Tong Qiang (the iconic Iwo Jima soldiers hoisting a gigantic dollar symbol instead of the Stars and Stripes) to the timber-paneled red-wine cellar to the burgundy velvet armchairs to the sleek Laguiole knives to the soon-to-come rooftop garden (cigars!), Cépage is understated swank. Resident chef... More Thomas Mayr was born in a village in northern Italy whose inhabitants spoke a German dialect, and his training at Munich’s spectacular Restaurant Tantris further reinforced his cosmopolitan credentials. As a result, the standard appellation French-Mediterranean doesn’t begin to do the food justice. All the goodies of Asia and Europe have been conscripted into seasonal roles. The thoughtful wine list dutifully bows down to all these fine ingredients.

Address:
23 Wing Fung St.
Hong Kong
China

Phone:
852-2861-3130Less

3. China Club

To begin your Hong Kong culinary education, have your hotel wangle an invitation to Saturday brunch at the China Club, a members-only oasis taking up the top three floors of the old Bank of China building. This is as central as you can get in Hong Kong’s Central district.

Address:
Old Bank of China Building, Bank St.
Hong Kong
China

Phone:
852... More-2521-8888Less

4. Felix

The glowing harbor from this restaurant’s 28th floor window resembles a nautical Times Square with boats beating their way across the water, framed by a skyline garishly lit with the names of troubled American banks. The men’s room is already infamous. Let’s just say that during a sensitive moment, the whole city is at your feet (thank you,... More Philippe Starck).

Address:
28/F, Salisbury Rd.
Hong Kong
China

Phone:
852-2315-3188Less

5. Four Seasons

Brand new in 2005, this 399-room waterfront property has a gargantuan, decadent spa (try a ginger-lemongrass soak to ease your jet lag), and spacious rooms and suites (the smallest of which are about 500 square feet). Room décor tends toward clean-lined, modern minimalism, with Asian-infused touches like lacquered-wood tables and silk... More cushions and throws in some of the rooms. All have 42-inch plasma-screen TV’s, and luxurious bathrooms with deep soaking tubs and walk-in showers with rainfall showerheads. Of the on-site dining options, two are excellent: Lung King Heen, serving innovative Cantonese cuisine, and the elegant Japanese Inagiku, where chef Shinji Morihara prepares some of the city’s finest kaiseki and teppanyaki. One of the property’s real showstoppers is the rooftop deck, where twin swimming pools overlook the harbor.

Room to Book: Harbor-view rooms, as opposed to city-facing options (the latter looks over lots of skyscrapers—not such a novelty if you’ve come from New York or Chicago).

Money, food, and gossip fuel Hong Kong, and you can find a nice combination of the three at the Golden Valley restaurant at the Emperor Hotel, in Happy Valley. The basic ingredients for the hot pot are also amazingly diverse—Sichuan peppercorns that unload like a small shot of novocaine; spicy tofu; a dash of lard. The appetizers are top-notch: a ... Moreplump, juicy bomb of a meatball; slippery dan-dan noodles full of peanut and spice; a chili chicken.

The infinity pool on the terrace of the new $11,200-a-night Presidential Suite at the InterContinental appears to share water with Victoria Harbour. (If only the pool had regular edges, you could rest your scotch on one of them as you gazed through the mist at those luminous skyscrapers.) The 7,000-square-foot suite comes with two 24-hour butlers,... More a gymnasium, and high-tech toilet seats that rise automatically when you enter the room. This over-the-top lair is just one of the impressive additions to the property, which has undergone an overhaul to stay competitive in the city’s heated hotel market. There’s also a fleet of butlers for guests in the 495 spiffed-up rooms (with iPod docks and Bose surround sound), and outposts of Nobu and Alain Ducasse’s Spoon. One thing didn’t require improvement: the hotel’s unrivaled views of Hong Kong.

688-room hotel on Kowloon’s Tsim Sha Tsui East waterfront, with floor-to-ceiling bay windows in every room.

Address:
64 Mody Rd.
Hong Kong
China

Phone:
(866) 565-5050

10. Lei Garden

This chain of uncomplicated Singapore-originated restaurants manages to do just about everything right. Feast on standards such as lobster with ginger and scallion, a near-perfect Peking duck and barbecued pork.

This is the only restaurant in Hong Kong to get three stars from the 2009 Michelin guide, and the locals were not all pleased. Sample harangue: “These French [Michelin] people, what do they understand? They only care about the view. So many better restaurants in Hong Kong, but not so fancy.” Well, it is true, you cannot beat the view from atop the... More Four Seasons Hotel, the meditative arrangements of wood and glass dipping into the harbor. Still, the food is phenomenal. The lightly fried pork looks golden and actually tastes golden, while the spring onion has been julienned with startling precision. And then there’s the off-the-menu house favorite: the pan-fried, silky-smooth grouper with a shading of black truffle used with perfect restraint. (The chef apparently keeps an emergency supply of black truffles for those in the know.)

The M Bar at the Mandarin Oriental hotel allows you to gaze straight down onto the harbor from the 25th floor. The Earl Grey “mar-tea-ni,” rimmed with sugar and salt and infused with orange, is a clever mix of strong booze and light caffeine and the perfect way to regain focus. And if you fancy a beer snack, the deep-fried tofu, garlicky little... More fried cubes dipped in chili-salt, will do a nice tap dance along your tongue.

A stem-to-stern renovation completed in 2006 (to the tune of $150 million) renewed the luster of this legendary property—a decades-long favorite of visiting dignitaries like Margaret Thatcher and Henry Kissinger. Many of the 502 rooms have been enlarged (by enclosing the balconies in glass); high-tech amenities like iPod docking stations, Wi-Fi,... More and touch-screen lighting and temperature control have also been added. The décor’s been updated, too, with plush velvety fabrics, wood wall panels, and colorfully glazed Asian ceramics. Though there’s a spa on three floors with Chinese herbal steam rooms, bathing beauties may be perfectly content to languish in their own airy marble bathrooms, kitted out with Hermès toiletries. The real choice comes in the form of 10 different restaurants and bars. Our favorites: Man Wah, with its classic Cantonese cuisine, and the sophisticated French-influenced Pierre, helmed by chef Pierre Gagnaire.

For a brief pit stop try Olala Charcuterie, where you can score a refreshing salad with extra-lean Serrano ham and an undercurrent of beets. Sturdier dishes include an oxtail stewed with red wine and vegetables and a lusty boeuf bourguignon. The food is decent and the place adorable, a glassed-in locale where a wooden table is exactly that, and... More where you can while away an entire afternoon listening to Chinese yuppies discussing the finer points of Pinot. In deference to local tastes, the popular meat lasagna will give you a sugar high for days.

Address:
2 Star St.
Hong Kong
China

Phone:
852-2294-0450Less

16. Salon de Ning, Hong Kong

Salon de Ning is a pleasantly weird place to get blitzed on fruity pink Deutz champagne while lounging among the dandiest collection of antique bric-a-brac this side of Hudson, New York (sequined pillows; enormous perfume bottles; a lion’s head). Whoever designed this place must have had a ton and a half of fun.

The menu here is worth the harrowing squeeze into the tiny dining room. There’s a duck leg in lemon soup that flakes right off the bone; there’s the fried baby oyster omelette which actually melts before reaching your mouth; and the shrimp sauce suffusing a dish of spinach—rich, salty, and strong. And then of course there’s that Chiu Chow classic,... More goose meat with soy sauce. It’s a spectacularly moist goose breast, squatting over a bed of tofu and ready to be dipped in a garlicky vinegar sauce. You can’t ignore the cupboard of ingredients that fuel the taste of this animal—ginger, lemon, soy, anise, and so many other supporting players in what amounts to a one-dish feast.

Italianate grandeur is the aesthetic of choice at this Kowloon property, set a few blocks away from the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront (with its Star Ferry dock and hulking Harbour Plaza shopping center). The lobby is over-the-top ornate, with a high domed ceiling, Dale Chihuly glass sculpture, and inlaid marble floors that evoke a luxe Tuscan estate.... More Of the 495 rooms, the 270 Grand Rooms have been gorgeously and recently renovated, with leather-paneled walls and vintage black-and-white phtography; slick glass, chrome, and cherry wood furniture; and opulent baths with deep soaking tubs, elegant wall sconces, and piles of fluffy white towels. All have bedside controls for lights, temperature, drapes, and door chimes (the last can be disabled with a “Do Not Disturb” switch). There’s a state-of-the-art fitness center, open around the clock, and a lovely rooftop pool, surrounded by mosaic tile and flowering bougainvillea (very popular during warm weather months—plan to stake out your chaise lounge early).

Room to book: As usual, rooms on the Langham Club floors (11-16) include lots of bells and whistles, like breakfast and cocktails in the private club lounge, free limo transport to and from the airport, and access to a private boardroom for business meetings.

Tip: Splurge on a dinner of Cantonese crab at the lavish onsite T’ang Court restaurant.

Address:
8 Peking Rd.
Hong Kong
China

Phone:
(800) 588-9141Less

19. The Peninsula

Since 1928, this Hong Kong institution has defined the luxury hotel experience, and although certain kinds of travelers (especially lovers of sleek, high-tech minimalism) may find the Peninsula too old-world, there’s no denying it’s a serious class act. The fleet of 14 customized Rolls-Royce limousines is just the first clue to the hotel’s glamour... More factor; then there’s the lobby, where the bellboys sport immaculate white pillbox hats and uniforms, a string quartet plays classical music, and a queue forms daily to partake of the afternoon high tea. A grand staircase leads to the mezzanine level, and tucked-away elevators whisk guests to the 300 guest rooms—all decorated in formal English-country-manor style, with gleaming dark wood furniture, brocade fabrics, and Chinese ceramics and wall art. On the top floor is the Philippe Starck-designed Felix restaurant, which still packs them in more than a decade after its opening; here, captains of industry can be found tucking into Tasmanian salmon and Boston lobster.

Address:
Salisbury Rd.
Hong Kong
China

Phone:
(866) 382-8388Less

20. Tin Heung Lau

The famous Longjing tea leaves from the Hangzhou region make the stir-fried freshwater shrimp taste sweet and earthy, but the star of the show is missing from the English side of the menu—the smoked yellow croaker, an unremarkable, bottom-dwelling creature that, in the hands of the Tin Heung Lau staff, emerges as the most tender, smokiest piece of... More fish.

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